Sunday, February 12, 2012

Hi From the MTC for the Last Time!



Hej fra MTCet for den sidste gang!
Hvordan gør det? Det gør fint nok for mig her. Jeg kan lide MTCet, men virkelig jeg ønsker kun at undervise de danske folk. Jeg er så spændt at gør til Danmark! Jeg ved at Jesu Kristi Kirke af Sidste Dages Hellige er sand, at Gud gengav sit evangelium gennem Joseph Smith, og at på grund af min Frelsers kærlighed for alle Guds børn kan vi kende dem personlig og komme tilbag til vor Fader i Himmelen.
Essentially:
Hi from the MTC for the last time!
How are you? I'm well enough. I like the MTC, but really I just want to teach the Danish people. I'm so excited to go to Denmark! I know at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true, that God restored his gospel through Joseph Smith, and that because of my Savior's love for all of God's children can we come to know them personally and return to our Heavenly Father.
So, Danish is coming along well. Last night we got to teach in English for the first time and it was SO weird. Our first day at the MTC we went to 3 rooms in a big group and watched as a set of missionaries began to teach an acting investigator. Then they left and it was our turn to teach him/her as a group of 40 or so, just taking turns speaking when we had something to say. It was a disaster. Last Friday we found out that our teachers got an e-mail asking for volunteer missionaries for teaching and our teachers volunteered us. Flattering, really, but come on! The first one was okay, but the second one ... the mediator/host warned us "oh, by the way, this guy can be kind of hard." and then ran away. The paper made him seem like a kind, loving guy who'd talked with his friends and said we could come visit him. This is how it went down.
"Hi, are you Daniel? We're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and your friend Jeremy said you'd be interrested in meeting us."
"I don't know any Jeremy."
That's a pretty good indication of how the night went. We eventually kept talking and sort of bullied our way in, where every question we asked was met with ridicule and every explanation was turned into a personal insult. He once even told Sister Arbon, "That's a stupid question." when she asked if his family was important to him. Again, we eventually got him to answer the freaking questions and stick to the point and just when he gave a real, sincere answer to my question about prayer, he had to follow it up with, "You know, it's weird being asked these sorts of questions ... by a woman." He paused and looked me right in the eye when he said it too. The mediator cut it off then. Could have been worse. The mediator later told us that the two Elders before us (two of our friends from the Dutch district) stood outside the door for almost 20 minutes trying to talk to him. We were in in under 5.
Okay, so you all know the travel plans? Good. I'll call from SLC at about 7 (I think ... between 6:30 and whenever I said the plane left). Thank you all so much for your help and support here.
Will you (mom and dad) DearElder me the numbers you'd like me to call at? Without my cell phone I'm lost. I think I remember them, but that would be a really bad time to figure out that I don't.
Will someone steal the lyric list from Katie and DearElder me even a few of those song lyrics and quotes? I was hoping to have them compiled before I left so that I didn't have a billion loose pages floating around (and because some people here wanted them), but I'll take what I can get at this point. Katie, you're fired. However, I'm glad to hear you've passed your major tests and school is going well. Maybe now that you have time again you can send me some of them before other people steal the list and become my new favorite. Just an idea.
Oh! really quickly in the last minute I have. Our teachers have told us to just lie on mailing packages to Denmark. Label it as something under $50. Don't declare medicine or any food or anything new. If they're new shoes, rub mud on the bottom. A shirt, take of the tags. Pills, stuff them in socks. Bror Stacey had to pay a $350 dollar fine because his grandparents mailed him a bag of Cheetos, which are illegal in Denmark because of some of the preservatives. So be creative. Some people pop pills like candy. It can therefore be defined as candy. Oh, and Bror Stacey never did get those cheetos.
Jeg elsker jer!

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